The nurse accused of telling a surgery patient to “man up” while she stole a powerful painkiller meant for him is seeking drug treatment, a prosecutor told a judge Tuesday.

Sarah May Casareto, 33, of Forest Lake was to make her first appearance before a Hennepin County judge, but only her defense attorney showed up to ask for a continuance.

But Casareto was not the only nurse scheduled to appear before Hennepin County District Judge Joseph Klein on drug-related charges Tuesday. The other was Angela Joy Teske, 31, of New Hope, who was charged with fifth-degree drug possession Jan. 4 on suspicion of forging prescriptions for the anti-anxiety drug Xanax.

In Casareto’s case, defense attorney Max Keller asked Klein for a continuance for a “confidential” reason he’d explained to the judge in a letter.

Assistant County Attorney Michael Radmer, who said Casareto was in treatment, opposed any delay and asked the judge to issue a warrant for her arrest. Klein refused and set her next court date for March 22.

The judge also warned Keller not to ask for another delay without good reason.

Keller declined to comment after the hearing.

Teske, licensed as a nurse in Minnesota in June 2006, was granted a conditional release after being charged Jan. 4, six months after workers at a Golden Valley dental office reported alleged prescription fraud.

The criminal complaint says workers claimed Teske had forged a dentist’s signature on prescriptions for Xanax. When she took one of the prescriptions to a Walgreens in Golden Valley on June 9, the pharmacist called the dental office to verify that it was genuine and was told it wasn’t.

The criminal complaint says more checks revealed that Teske had presented numerous forged prescriptions at the Golden Valley Walgreens.

When Golden Valley police questioned Teske, she “admitted that she had a problem with Xanax,” the complaint says. Teske told police she learned how to draft prescriptions while working at the dental office, forged the dentist’s signature and filled the prescriptions at Walgreens.

It was the third prosecution in a week of a nurse for improper drug possession.

Maria Anne Mihalick, 27, of Superior, Wis., was accused of entering at least three patients’ rooms at Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids in May and taking the painkiller Dilaudid. She was named in a federal charge Friday. Her Wisconsin nursing license was revoked. Her Minnesota credentials were rescinded.

Casareto was charged last week with a felony count of theft of a controlled substance for a November incident at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis. She was responsible for administering painkillers for a procedure to remove a patient’s kidney stone. Among the painkillers used was Fentanyl, a controlled substance.

Prosecutors say hospital records show Casareto signed out 500 micrograms of Fentanyl before the surgery, gave the patient 150 micrograms and discarded 300 micrograms as unused.

That left 50 micrograms unaccounted for, and prosecutors contend Casareto used it herself.

The criminal complaint said Abbott officials told investigators they became concerned about Casareto’s behavior because she “kept falling asleep” and seemed unable to do her job. The patient, Larry V. King, 56, of Bloomington, appeared to be in great pain, according to the physician in charge of the procedure.

Witnesses claim Casareto told King, “You’re going to have to man up here and take some of the pain because we can’t give you a lot of medication; you’re going straight into surgery.”

After the surgery, Abbott officials ordered Casareto to take a drug test, but they say she refused and walked off the job. Casareto maintains she was fired.

The investigation began after King, a Carver County sheriff’s deputy, contacted Minneapolis police about a month after the surgery.

Tim Burke, a spokesman for Allina Hospitals & Clinics, which operates Abbott Northwestern, said the hospital made “all required reports” after the incident.

Asked what those reports were, whom they were made to and when they were made, he replied: “I can’t tell you more because of privacy issues. I know that’s not very satisfying, but that’s what we’re stuck with.”

Caserto’s attorney claimed hospital officials had pressed Casareto to return too soon after she had been out with an illness, which he did not identify. He said she returned to work without refresher training and the illness “caused the lethargy and other symptoms incorrectly described in the criminal complaint as signs that she had recently ingested a narcotic.”

As you comment, please be respectful of other commenters and other viewpoints. Our goal with article comments is to provide a space for civil, informative and constructive conversations. We reserve the right to remove any comment we deem to be defamatory, rude, insulting to others, hateful, off-topic or reckless to the community. See our full terms of use here.

More in News

MONTREAT, N.C. (AP) — The Rev. Billy Graham, who transformed American religious life through his preaching and activism, becoming a counselor to presidents and the most widely heard Christian evangelist in history, died Wednesday. He was 99.

The Crosswinds school building in Woodbury could reopen as a science-focused magnet school with St. Paul Public Schools as its new owner. The St. Paul school board voted 5-2 on Tuesday night to buy the building from the state for $15.3 million. The deal closes Wednesday morning. The St. Paul district was a member of the cooperative that built Crosswinds...

It may have begun as a rumor, but now it’s officially a controversy. Members of the District 833 American Indian Parent Committee urged the South Washington County School Board last week to remove an Indian head mosaic at Park High School. The artwork was installed in 1965 in the east part of the main hallway near the school gym. They...

The parent group of Minnesota Public Radio is opening an innovation center — a testing lab and co-working space for startup ventures — in downtown St. Paul’s former Ecolab Tower on Wabasha Street. American Public Media plans to open the Glen Nelson Center in the recently renovated Osborn370 building this summer. Backed by philanthropic foundations, the center will invest in...

Sun Country Airlines is cutting 350 workers from its ground service operations at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The Eagan-based company told employees Tuesday it will contract those jobs out to Global Aviation Services Inc. Executives say the move will make Sun County more efficient. Layoffs begin immediately, with workers able to reapply for positions with Global Aviation as soon as...

The late Spiro Pina made Olympic history in 1994 when he became the first man to compete in luge for Greece. Pina, a native of St. Paul and a dual citizen of Greece and the U.S., returned to the Winter Olympics four years later, carrying the flag for Greece in Nagano, Japan. He placed 24th both years. Now his Olympic sled,...